Financial Markets and Economy
Treasury's Mnuchin Repeats Long-Term Dollar Strength Is 'Good' (Bloomberg)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin repeated his view that the long-term strengthening of the dollar is in best interest of the economy and that it reflects confidence in the world’s reserve currency.
OPEC Can't Count on American Drivers to Help Boost Oil Prices (Bloomberg)
Rising U.S. oil production isn’t the only thing getting in the way of OPEC’s efforts to drain a global glut. American drivers aren’t helping either.
Millions of Manufacturing Jobs Could Go Unfilled (Bloomberg)
James Michael Logsdon, a Louisville auto mechanic, hadn’t been in a classroom in 40 years when his company went out of business in 2015, but he was keen to learn something new.
How Fed hike will affect mortgages, car loans, credit cards (The Washington Post)
With the Federal Reserve having raised its benchmark interest rate Wednesday and signaled the likelihood of additional rate hikes later this year, consumers and businesses will feel it — if not immediately, then over time.
Early Lessons from India’s Demonetization Experiment (Harvard Business Review)
Consider the sequence of events in its demonetization saga. In November the government made a high-risk, high-stakes economic intervention in the world’s largest democracy, with an objective to reduce corruption.
New York Millionaire Hangouts: Just How Much Trump Will Cut Rich Residents' Taxes (Forbes)
Where do rich people hang out? We’ve identified 51 locales, and calculated for each an average upper-bracket net worth and proposed Trump tax cut.
Victim of Its Own Success, Iceland Considers New Tax on Tourists (Bloomberg)
Overwhelmed by a record number of visitors in spite of its far-flung location, Iceland’s government is considering ways of raising taxes in the tourism sector. The alternative would be to limit sightseers’ access to the country’s most popular spots.
Could the Housing Crunch Get Worse? What the Latest Construction Numbers Say (Realtor.com)
The number of permits issued to builders to put up sorely needed homes across the country fell 6.2% from January to February, according to the seasonally adjusted numbers in the latest new residential construction report jointly released by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This Year, Invest in a Better Life Story For Yourself (Bloomberg)
Years of research has found that spending money on an experience—concert tickets, a surfing trip, even a simple meal with friends—is more likely to make us happier than buying a fancy car or piece of real estate.
Now That Everyone's Been Pushed into Risky Assets… (Of Two Minds)
If we had to summarize what's happened in eight years of "recovery," we could start with this: everyone's been pushed into risky assets while being told risk has been transformed from something to avoid (by buying risk-off assets) to something you chase to score essentially guaranteed gains (by buying risk-on assets).
Moats And Machines: How Warren Buffet Analyzes a Business (Inc.)
When you ask most CEOs about their vision for their business, they usually give you an answer built around metrics like number of customers, market share, or profitability.
Merkel Says Netherlands Election Provides “Clear Signal”: Investigating the Coalition Math (MishTalk)
For starters, that headline is a bit over the top. Support for Rutte picked up when he adopted a much stricter stance towards immigration.
How to Make New Information Part of the Financial Plan (Behavior Gap)
When we’re operating as reality-based financial planners, we need to help people understand how to include new information into their financial plans. Even more important, we need to help people remember that making a change doesn’t need to be scary.
It Takes “Alternative Math” to Claim That Redistribution Is Futile (RegBlog)
The unequal distribution of costs and benefits across society is one of the hottest topics in the regulatory arena—and one that, regretfully, has sparked fundamentally flawed arguments, threatening to distort and obscure much-needed discussion about redistributive policies.
"This Is Not The Reaction The Fed Wanted": Goldman Warns Yellen Has Lost Control Of The Market (Zero Hedge)
With stocks soaring briskly around the globe following Yellen's "dovish" hike, and futures set for a sharply higher open with the Nasdaq approaching 6,000, something surprising caught our attention: in a note by Goldman's Jan Hatzius, the chief economist warns that the market is overinterpreting the Fed's statement, and Yellen's presser, and cautions that it was not meant to be the "dovish surprise" the market took it to be.
Making Tax Evasion Great: The $100 Billion Giveaway (Democracy Journal)
President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget has proposed a 14.1 percent cut in funding for the Internal Revenue Service. If made permanent, we conservatively estimate that this cut will cost the Treasury $60 billion, just from direct revenue loss due to reduced enforcement (and netting out the reduced spending on IRS enforcement).
This Won't End Well… Never Has (Zero Hedge)
Q1 2017 will likely be the weakest period for economic growth of any rate hike since 1980; stock market earnings expectations are tumbling; uncertainty about the Trumpian pillars of stock market strength are surging, and various 'risk-on' asset classes around the world and breaking bad.
Companies
Chipotle Finally Gets Some Good News (The Motley Fool)
More than a year has passed since Chipotle Mexican Grill's (NYSE:CMG) E. coli crisis passed. The outbreak of disease-causing bacteria sickened dozens of customers and knocked the wind out of Chipotle shares and the business itself.
The 100 hottest restaurants in America right now (Insider)
Going out to a restaurant isn't just about the food — it's about the combination of cuisine and ambience.
To help diners find restaurants with a buzzing atmosphere, OpenTable has released a list of the 100 hottest restaurants in the US right now.
MORGAN STANLEY: These 3 restaurant stocks could be crushed by the return of food inflation (CAKE, RRGB, BLMN) (Business Insider)
Falling food prices will soon be history, and restaurants could get crushed as prices rise, according to Morgan Stanley.
"As a percentage of company-operated restaurant sales," said an analyst team led by John Glass, "food costs declined ~40bps in 2015 and another ~70bps in 2016."
The World's Most Reputable Companies In 2017 (Forbes)
For the second year in a row, Rolex has topped the list of the most reputable companies on the planet. The Swiss watchmaker’s retention of the top position comes on the back of strong scores in various categories but most remarkably in the perception of its performance, and products and services.
Uber, It's Time to Get Real Over $69 Billion Price Tag (Bloomberg)
Uber Technologies Inc. did something out of character in France recently. It sat down to negotiate with drivers over work and pay conditions.
Let me be clear: I do not trade bitcoin, but I do write about it often.
Before going into journalism, I spent my days trading. I learned a lot about technical analysis during that time, and right now, technical analysis spells huge trouble ahead for the cryptocurrency.
Technology
GoPro finally realizes that smartphones can do exactly what its cameras can (Business Insider)
One of GoPro's biggest challenges is competition.
The action-camera maker is striving to return to profitability, and on Wednesday announced its third round of layoffs in just over a year.
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Google Home is playing audio ads for Beauty and the Beast (Circuit Breaker)
Today some Google Home owners reported hearing something extra when they asked for a summary of the day ahead from the smart speaker: an advertisement for the opening of Beauty and the Beast.
Westworld-style folding phone might get real this year (Cult Of Mac)
Smartphones that fold out into a tablet are one of the many awesome inventions the creators of Westworld promised we have to look forward to in the future. But according to a new rumor, Samsung might make them a reality in 2017.
California paves way to self-driving car tests without humans (Reuters)
California, the largest U.S. car market, plans to allow testing on public roads of self-driving vehicles without human backup drivers by the end of the year, state officials said Friday.
Car industry players diverge on timescale for self-driving cars (Reuters)
Carmakers and suppliers gave widely differing timelines for the introduction of self-driving vehicles on Thursday, showing the uncertainties surrounding the technology as well as a split between cautious established players and bullish new entrants.
How to Dramatically Increase Your Chances of Success Today: Quit Social Media (Inc.)
If the regular patterns of Inc.com readership are anything to go by, chances are excellent that you found this post via a share on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Politics
President Trump’s Budget Calls for Privatizing America’s Air Traffic Control (Reuters)
President Donald Trump is proposing to shift oversight of the U.S. air traffic control from the federal government to an independent group, according to budget documents released on Thursday.
A Fox News poll released Wednesday indicated some Americans have unfavorable opinions about the Trump administration, as well as some congressional Democrats and Republicans.
Ryan, Senate Intel committee see no evidence of Trump wiretap (CNN)
The speaker of the House, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman and the ranking Democrat on the committee said Thursday that they've seen no evidence of President Donald Trump's accusation that he was wiretapped last year by his predecessor.
The 78 programs Trump wants to eliminate don’t even pay for his border wall (Think Progress)
In his initial budget document released on Thursday, President Donald Trump called for huge reductions in government spending.
Fact Check: Trump’s Day of Falsehoods and Misleading Claims (NY Times)
It was déjà vu on Wednesday: President Trump traveled to Detroit and Nashville for campaign-style rallies, sat down for an interview with Fox News and criticized a federal judge for blocking his travel ban.
Senate Intelligence Committee categorically rejects Trump’s wiretapping claim (Think Progress)
The Senate Intelligence Committee has seen no evidence to support President Trump’s claims that President Obama had him “wiretapped” during the election — or ever.
Spicer says Trump ‘stands by’ unproven allegation that Obama ordered wiretapping of Trump Tower (The Washington Post)
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday that President Trump “stands by” his allegation that former president Barack Obama ordered wiretapping surveillance of Trump Tower last fall, despite statements from the leaders of congressional investigations that no evidence had been found to support the claim.
“Oh, I know that”: President Trump shrugs off the devastating impact repealing Obamacare will have on his baseIn the face of a barrage of scrutiny from what he has deemed the “fake news,” President Donald Trump on Wednesday night turned to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson for refuge and attempted to repair some self-inflicted political wounds in the battle over health care reform.
The Wall Street White House: Trump hires fifth Goldman Sachs staffer to the administration (Salon)
President Donald Trump plans on adding another Goldman Sachs veteran to his administration, saying Tuesday that he will nominate James Donavan, the acting managing director of Goldman, as his deputy treasury secretary.
‘What Do They Know?’: Fox News Host Goes After Anti-Travel Ban Judges (Mediaite)
On Fox News’s Outnumbered today, the panelists took umbrage at the classification of Donald Trump‘s travel bans as Muslim bans.
Trump’s absurd budget priorities: Single mothers apparently need bombs more than Big Bird (Salon)
President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal is, to quote Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., “morally obscene and bad economic policy.” The White House’s proposal calls for deep, gouging cuts to every agency that isn’t explicitly military related.
A Potentially Huge Mistake For The Trump DOJ: Sessions Wants To Bring Back Reagan-Ara Drug Policies (Blacklisted News)
We thought that a detente had been reached with AG Sessions on the pot issue. We thought we had all agreed that there are probably more important things for the Department of Justice on which to focus than on legal weed. Lord knows there are.
Rand Paul Responds To "Unhinged" McCain (Zero Hedge)
On the heels of yesterday's McCain meltdown exclaiming that Rand Paul "is now working for Vladimir Putin," the Kentucky Senator released a short statement.
Lockheed Martin is a big winner in Trump's defense budget (Reuters)
Nearly half of President Donald Trump's 2017 $30 billion supplemental defense budget proposal – $13.5 billion – would go to buy and modernize warplanes, warships and missiles.
Obtaining Land for Trump’s Border Wall a Daunting Task, Experts Say (The Wall Street Journal)
President Donald Trump wants to hire 20 lawyers to work on obtaining the land needed to build a wall along the Southwest border. He may need more.
Trump’s climate skepticism could be the biggest threat to US national security (Business Insider)
One thing is clear from President Donald Trump’s budget proposal: he really does think climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to slow America’s mighty economy.
Documents Detail Flynn Payments From Russian Interests (Associated Press)
Documenting more than $67,000 in fees and expenses paid before the presidential election to former national security adviser Michael Flynn by Russian companies, a Democratic congressman Thursday asked the Trump administration to provide a comprehensive record of Flynn's contacts with foreign governments and interests.
Theresa May holds back from triggering Article 50 (The Economist)
After protracted parliamentary debate, the bill authorising the prime minister to invoke Article 50, the legal basis for leaving the European Union, finally became law this week.
Republican senator thinks EPA cuts will keep the agency from ‘brainwashing our kids’ (Think Progress)
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is probably best known for bringing a snowball to the Senate floor in a sad, failed attempt to demonstrate that climate change is a myth. (It’s not).
Health and Biotech
Pressure Doesn’t Have to Turn into Stress (Harvard Business Review)
When I was in my late twenties, I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Doctors operated and told me to hope for the best. I returned to Japan, where I was working, and tried to forget about it. The tumors returned a year later, this time in my liver.
Life on the Home Planet
The More Climate Skeptics There Are, the Fewer Climate Entrepreneurs (Harvard Business Review)
According to an October 2016 Pew poll, only about half of Americans believe that climate change is due to human activity. The U.S. remains home to a considerable number of “climate skeptics,” who clearly impact the politics around the issue, as they are unlikely to support costly actions such as carbon taxes intended to mitigate the challenge of climate change.
Nearly Half A Million U.S. Doctors Warn That Climate Change Is Making Us Sick (The Huffington Post)
One morning in July 2011, Samantha Ahdoot’s 9-year-old son, Isaac, grabbed his clarinet, trekked up the hilly road to the bus stop and set off for another day at the band camp near his home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Admiral and 8 Other Navy Officers Indicted on Bribery Charges (NY Times)
A retired United States Navy admiral and eight other high-ranking officers were indicted on Tuesday in a widening bribery scandal in which prosecutors say a foreign contractor traded luxury travel, lavish gifts and prostitutes for inside intelligence.
Here's what happened when UFC fighters took on Marine Corps martial-arts experts (We Are The Mighty)
Well, you can stop wondering. A YouTube video called "UFC Fighters Experience Marine Corps Martial Arts" gives a look at what happened when five fighters — Marcus Davis, Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, (Marine veteran) Brian Stann, and UFC President Dana White — made the trek to Quantico, Virginia's Marine Corps Martial Arts Center of Excellence, better known as MACE.
